Sweet and sour stir-fry

"This is one of those recipes that I'm proud of. Proud because it's soooo not posh. It's a fully naff little number that unashamedly uses tomato ketchup. It also uses those brilliant kinds of veg that keep forever in the fridge or cupboard – carrots, peppers, celery, red/white/green cabbage, onions – all these keep ages and you can cut a bit off most of them and use the rest later. This works particularly well with cabbage – just chop a hunk off the red or white variety and strip a few leaves off the green.

"You can make it meaty or meat free – if you are using meat you don't need much and a good option for stir-fries is cooked meat salvaged from a roast. We sometime freeze little packets of leftover meat to use in stir-fries."

Ingredients

Half a mug of water

A squeeze of ketchup – about a tbsp

A tsp cornflour

2 tbsp soy sauce

White pepper to taste – we like lots!

Egg noodles

Vegetables or meat of your choice to stir fry: carrots, peppers, cabbage, and onions all work well.